Video Container: Touch Cinema

“Video Container: Touch Cinema” is a presentation of single-channel video work by contemporary artists who investigate the material and metaphysical presence of the body as it relates to issues of identity and sexuality. The second edition of a new MOCA video series exploring topical issues in contemporary art making, “Video Container” reflects the museum’s ongoing commitment to presenting and contextualizing experimental and critical practices, and to providing a platform for interdisciplinary media and discursive content. The program series is made possible by an endowment to the museum by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

“Video Container: Touch Cinema” features videos by leading contemporary artists including: Vito Acconci, Bas Jan Ader, Sadie Benning, Shezad Dawood, Harry Dodge, Kate Gilmore, Maryam Jafri, Mike Kelley & Paul McCarthy, Ursula Mayer, Alix Pearlstein, Pipilotti Rist, Carolee Schneemann, Frances Stark, VALIE EXPORT, and Hannah Wilke, among others. The exhibition borrows its title from an iconic recording of a 1968 guerrilla performance by VALIE EXPORT, in which the artist attached a miniature curtained “movie theater” to her bare chest and invited passersby on the street to reach in. Conflating the space of the theater with her own body, EXPORT’s performance emphasized the powerful and contested nature of viewership and interaction.

Ranging from performance documentation to abstract shorts and long-form narratives, the artists in “Video Container: Touch Cinema” expand upon themes related to VALIE EXPORT’s seminal piece. Videos will rotate each day to address various questions, ranging from the relationship between the artist’s body and studio environment to how narratives of gender and performance have been interpreted through media.

Admission to “Video Container” is free and open to the public thanks to the support of the Knight Foundation. “Video Container: Touch Cinema” is organized by Sarah Sulistio, Curatorial Assistant, and Janice Angel, Public Programs Director, under the supervision of Alex Gartenfeld, Interim Director and Chief Curator.